Welcome back to the “Role Playing Game PDF Spotlights” column, where we look at some of the PDFs that have been released in the past week that have piqued my interest. This week’s picks include new releases for Star Trek Adventures, Traveller, Mothership, 5E, Savage Worlds, and plenty more!
All of the below were released in PDF between 15th-21st January 2022.
Pew! Pew! A Complicated Profession
Core Rulebook
By Fainting Goat Games
Pew Pew! A Complicated Profession is a one-shot tabletop RPG for up to seven players (and one GM).
It’s a rules-light roleplaying game, with everything you need to play (aside from dice and friends).
It’s light-hearted and intended for one shots; this isn’t a story about deep-seated emotional turmoil and tortured introspection.
It’s also great for new gamers, or playing online, because it’s easy to pick up and quick to play.
It’s a game about explosions and loads of big fights and ray guns and, maybe, maybe laser swords. It’s an excellent game to run at conventions or as an emergency pick-up game, because all the prep is already done – it’s baked into the system.
This is a game designed to tell one particular story: a rough and tumble bounty hunter squad tracking down a target in a sci-fi fantasy western setting.
Pew Pew! is built for speed. So all the characters are all pre-generated, so the GM should hand them out at the start of the session and the players can pick which ones they like. BUT – it’s a simple system – so chargen is pretty easy. A blank character sheet is included.
Trinity Continuum Supplement
By Onyx Path Publishing
Psions united for humanity’s future!
Prometheus Unbound expands the Trinity Continuum: Æon setting by diving into the inner workings, goals, and attitudes of the psi orders. Headed by proxies with powerful visions of the future, the psi orders are united in ensuring humanity’s prosperity but differ on the details.
Inside, you will find:
- Detailed information on all eight psi orders, including their structure, organization, politics, projects, and goals.
- An overview of the important people within the orders, their allies and enemies, how they relates to each other, and what threats each order must overcome.
- Guidance for running campaigns focusing on specific psi orders, how such stories interact with other organizations, and the challenges players will face.
- Deeper examination of psi powers, their potential and limitations, including flexible systems to allow players to generate their own spectacular effects!
- Rules and descriptions of new technologies used by each psi order.
Requires both Trinity Continuum: Aeon and the Trinity Continuum Corebook to play.
5E Dungeons & Dragons Adventure
By Legendary Games
Islands of Adventure!
Explore the incredible archipelago of Boricubos, a land rooted in the myths and legends of the Taino and Arawak peoples of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. This amazing campaign setting includes vividly detailed cultures with seven sensational playable races, from the anabagua flower-folk to the volcanic wolakan, the mercenary iguaca parrotfolk, the hurakan living storm scions, and more! Plus you’ll find nearly 40 new archetypes and class options for every 5E character class, alongside dozens of new spells, weapons and armor, feats, magic items, and so much more, including the all new shaman class, a divine spirit-master and cousin to the warlock who binds the spirits of nature and the incarnation of ancestors to wield mystic power, with dozens of spirit bindings and boons to make each shaman unique!
Boricubos: The Lost Isles also includes adventure hooks, culture and history, and over a dozen new monsters native to the archipelago, plus three introductory adventures to help your heroes find their place in this island paradise: Prophet of Perdition, Ancient Bones, and Six Days Til Sacrifice! Slake your thirst for tropical adventure with Boricubos, where the echoes of murder in the houses of the gods brings war and chaos on the land, sea, and sky below, even as insidious invaders from beyond gather their strength. Now is a time for heroes, in an incredible world designed with a talented team of Latin American creators, including lead designer Miguel Colon. Whether you want to run a full Boricubos campaign or just mine an incredible wealth of campaign options for your players, this incredible 5th Edition campaign setting will definitely help Make Your Game Legendary!
Attack of the Giant Monsters! Atomic Edition
Savage Worlds Setting
By GRAmel
The world has embraced atomic science. It also has gone mad.
Attack of the Giant Monsters! is a 1950s B-movie-inspired post-pulp setting for Savage Worlds set in the alternate 1950s where aliens, mutants, zombies and… of course… giant monsters are commonplace.
This Atomic Edition contains thrice as much text as the original mini-setting. Monsters, mutants, aliens, luchadores – everything you enjoyed in the original edition, with more information about the world and the gear.
The B-movie bestiary has been expanded with the B-movie staples like Giant Bugs or rock monsters… and, of course, several new Giant Monsters, including The Toad That Walks Like A Man!
AotGM is a post-pulp mini-setting, inspired by the comics and B-movies you’ve seen parodied or riffed on the late-night cable shows or streaming services. This setting requires the use of the Savage Worlds Adventure Edition rules.
Traveller Supplement
By Mongoose Publishing
The Spinward Extents are the border between the familiar and the unknown. Pioneering and adventurous Imperials, Zhodani, Aslan, even Vargr, have reached the Extents; some have dwelt there for centuries or millennia, but they are far from their ancestral homes. Native races have forged their own empires across these stars. In the Extents the daring can make their fortunes, gain fame or infamy, and influence the course of events for entire worlds or distant governments. Alien races, forgotten mysteries, bitter rivalries and great opportunities await under the light of inconstant, giant, and dead stars.
Spinward Extents presents two complete sectors near the edge of Charted Space: The Beyond and the Vanguard Reaches. The Beyond is a borderland between Aslan expansion and human pocket empires, both ancient and new. At the end of Imperial courier routes, it is home to the alien Sred*Ni, isolated worlds, and mysterious entities. The Storm Knights hold the line in an uneasy truce with Aslan clans, but other dangers and many opportunities await.
The Vanguard Reaches is the spinward edge of settled space, a sector of proxy states for the distant Third Imperium and Zhodani Consulate. The sector is home to the warlike-Eslyat and peaceful Murians, dying red giant stars and the Helix Nebula. Warfare, politics, piracy, and sparse starscapes challenge Travellers who live and work in this distant sector.
Includes two huge colour poster maps of The Beyond and Vanguard Reaches sectors.
Shadowrun Missions: Learning Little from Victory (09-03)
Shadowrun Adventure
By Catalyst Game Labs
Politics As A Blood Sport…
When the Yakuza decide to get involved with local politics, what could go wrong? Shadowrunners in Neo-Tokyo are about to find out. Runners are going to be asked to influence the election, and they’ll have to deal with the candidates, their backers, and anyone else who wants things to go their way. They’ll have plenty of obstacles to overcome and decisions to make—are they just going to work for pay, or will they try to get the right person into office? Assuming they can decide who that is.
SRM 09-03 Learning Little from Victory is a Mission that can be used with both Shadowrun, Fifth Edition and Shadowrun, Sixth World.
Seven of Seven: Pantheon of the Chain – Reforged
Fantasy RPG Supplement for any system
By Deep Dungeon Games
The realms and world that we play in are often filled with any number of divine beings, figures of untold power, or even devilish entities with dark desires. There are some adventures that require the strength of these figures to use their magic, heal their allies, or escape dangers. At times one might find themselves to be tested by these individuals, find themselves under trial from a zealous king, or even discover that the dungeon they are in was once a temple to an ancient deity.
Now GM’s and Players alike can:
- The nature of each deity in the form of personality, depiction, and interactions
- Might boons and banes from the divine with a simple to use d4 table for each.
- The nature of each deity in the form of personality, depiction, and interactions.
- Celebrations revolving around deities in the form of holidays, feasts, and festivals.
- 200+ divine artifacts that have been touched by the Gods.
- Myths and lore to make the deities more mysterious and unique.
- – Divine organizations that worship or follow each deity.
In this 187-page book that reforged the pantheon of Seven of Seven the reader will find a brand-new pantheon of deities for use in any fantasy role-playing game! Inside, there are 56 reforged Gods & Goddesses that you can use however you need in your game. You can make them new gods, ancient gods, or perhaps powerful individuals whose affiliation remains a mysterious secret in your realm.
Battletech Sourcebook
By Catalyst Game Labs
Silence falls across the Jade Falcon border, and slowly, reports reach Lyran space: the Clan’s warriors, so long a threat to the Steiner realm, are gone. Powerful ambitions rush to fill the vacuum that follows. Former Clan citizens both recently assimilated and long conquered grapple with a future no longer defined by the will of the Falcon warriors. An Arcturan general dissatisfied with Tharkad’s ineffective rule forges her own destiny. A Clan denied the glory of Terra redefines itself through battle and conquest. And a mercenary unleashes her reborn command to claim vengeance for past calamities.
Tamar Rising is a BattleTech sourcebook providing full details of the events in the former Clan Jade Falcon Occupation Zone from 3151 to mid-3152. Included are a full historical summary of events in that region of space, personality and unit profiles of key players—many appearing here for the first time, and game information to bring it all to your BattleTech tabletop.
Star Trek Adventures: Gamemaster’s Guide
Star Trek Adventures Supplement
By Modiphius
THESE ARE THE VOYAGES…
The Gamemaster’s Guide for the Star Trek Adventures roleplaying game presents a wealth of information for new or novice Star Trek gamemasters, as well as for experienced gamemasters looking for additional guidance and new options to enhance their missions and campaigns.
The Star Trek universe is ready to be explored. What kind of campaign will you run?
This full color, 248 page digest is packed full of gamemaster advice, tables, and artwork, all designed to enhance your gameplay and delight your players.
This guide requires a Star Trek Adventures core rulebook to use.
Features:
- A primer on the essential elements of Star Trek, setting details, technology, and how Star Trek Adventures enables you to fold those elements into your game experiences.
- A wealth of optional rules and gamemaster tools, including extended consequences, advanced traits, Stress and Injury variants, and advanced combat rules. Plus, deep insights on effectively using the game mechanics, gleaned from 4 years of feedback and development.
- A dozen sample encounters and over 20 sample extended tasks you can use to enhance your missions and campaigns and challenge your players.
- A detailed discussion on how Star Trek stories are structured, and advice on developing scales of stories, from one-shot adventures to multiple-season campaigns.
- Definitions of six key Star Trek eras, enabling you to set stories anywhere in the Star Trek timeline; and nine distinct play styles, from deep space exploration to close to home, and beyond.
Star Trek Adventures: Player’s Guide
Star Trek Adventures Supplement
By Modiphius
SPACE, THE FINAL FRONTIER…
The Player’s Guide for the Star Trek Adventures roleplaying game presents a wealth of information and advice for gamers new to Star Trek and to Star Trek Adventures, as well as for experienced players looking for additional guidance and new options to enhance their characters and games.
The Star Trek universe is ready to be explored. What character will you play?
This full color, 264 page digest is packed full of player-focused options, advice, tables, and artwork, all designed to enhance your Star Trek Adventures game.
This guide requires a Star Trek Adventures core rulebook to use.
Features:
- A wealth of new character options, including new non-Starfleet character roles, more than 40 new talents, additional details on existing character roles and insights into using the game mechanics gleaned from 4 years of feedback and development.
- An overview of key Star Trek setting details and technology to help immerse you and your fellow players into the setting.
- Definitions of six key Star Trek eras, enabling you to take part in stories anywhere in the Star Trek timeline; and nine distinct play styles, from deep space exploration to close to home, and beyond.
- Guidance on how to be an engaged, active, and supportive player, and insights on building characters collaboratively with your group.
- All contents are adaptable for use with groups of pioneering Starfleet officers, fearless Klingon warriors, or daring crews of any polity.
Mothership Adventure
By Peter Drury-Mulholland
Alone on the Farm is a pamphlet module for the Mothership RPG.
Six months after production officially began all contact has been lost with AF139, the isolated megafarm built on the unnamed moon orbiting the mining planet of Veon 725. As the main source of protein and vegetables for the entire mining operation this needs rectifying immediately.
Your crew has been hired by the mining corporation to investigate why contact has been lost with the farm, and restore communications with the aim of restarting production.
Featuring:
- Story outline
- 10 NPC’s with detailed characteristic descriptions
- Monstrous alien foes with stats
- Map with detailed locations
- Rollable rumours table
- Warden hints and suggestions
The pamphlet can be used for a one-shot adventure, as part of an on-going campaign, or cannibalised and used for inspiration!
Core Rulebook
By The Basic Expert
Cowpunchers is a rules light cowboy western rpg that takes place in the 1870s Southwestern United States. The game is a simple mixture of level and skill based progression that uses d6s only. The “Wild West” was deadly and so is Cowpunchers. Thankfully, character creation is easy.
It’s a cowboy game with simple rules that is easy to learn so that you can get right to forming a posse.
Included with the rules is a simple scenario and a fillable character sheet, a hex map for the scenario and any future ones, and a battlemap that is roll20 compatible.
Penny Dreadful One Shot for Through the Breach
By Wyrd Miniatures
Penny Dreadful One Shots are single-session adventures for a party that are only released as PDFs. They allow Fatemasters to choose whether to insert them into an ongoing campaign or to run a quick and dirty session of Through the Breach.
Dr. Jackie Amundsen, a researcher who claims to specialize in gigant anthropology, calls the Fated to Fortune Falls. Winter’s chill is setting over Malifaux, and the doctor believes now is the time when the legendary Modranicht ceremony will be performed. The only problem is, the gigants who practice it dwell high in the Far Peaks. The Fated will need to bundle up and collect evidence of the mysterious Fae as they trek up the snowy cliffs. Jackie Amundsen’s studies might not be as ridiculous as everyone thinks…
Blood and Snow is a challenging One Shot adventure for the Through the Breach roleplaying game. It requires the Core Rules to play.
5E Dungeons & Dragons Adventure
By Night Owl Odysseys
The bridges in the bustling town of Chugwater have been taken over by trolls – intent on charging for crossing with violent enforcement. Can you save this city’s bridges? And what will you do when you learn there is more to the trolls and their role with these bridges? Find out now in Trouble at the Troll Bridge!
Trouble at the Troll Bridge is a Fifth Edition adventure designed for four to six characters of 3rd to 5th level and is optimized for four characters with an average party level (APL) of 5.
This adventure features a full building interior a second floor and a basement, making 3 battlemaps in total! In addition, you get 3 magic items, 2 music tracks, and 3 monsters (with 4 tokens)!
Encounters Volume V – Wastelands of Hell
3.5 & 5E Dungeons & Dragons Adventure
By Dragonshorn Studios
There is a Devil inside each Hero.
Imp running a workshop in the middle of wastelands. A giant ribcage of a devil long vanquished. An Erynies waiting for a village to succumb to hellish powers. A snake offering power in exchange for a piece of soul. Dangers await in every corner of underworld… will you dare to challenge the servants of hell in their dominion?
This encounter pack contains 10 carefully designed hell-themed encounters for both the 5th edition and 3.5 edition of the world’s most popular roleplaying games, with monster tactics, leads, hooks, and new monsters and items to spice up your game. Easy to use and drop into any adventure–to fill up blanks on the map, make a long journey more interesting or kickstart another adventure.
Content
10 encounters with tactics, hooks, and leads (EL for 5th edition)
- Deadly Pursuit (APL10)
- Ambush! (APL7)
- Customer Service (APL5)
- The Shaman (APL6)
- The Ribcage (APL7)
- Witch’s Lair (APL7)
- Tree of Power (APL8)
- Frozen Wastes (APL11)
- The Sins of the Past (APL10)
- Ruined Temple (APL8)
5 new maps (with variants) – available as jpg files in gridded and gridless versions
- One canyon map (one variant)
- One giant ribcage map (two variants)
- One wasteland tree map (two variants)
- One ruined village map (two variants)
- One cliffside cave map (two variants)
3 brand new monsters (with custom token art)
4 new magic items
Please note: Some of the links in the post above may be “affiliate links”. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item the author of this post will receive an affiliate commission.
Voices From The Pulpit 